One of the most popular secondary questions asked by medical schools is “why our program?” Saying why you’re attracted to a particular school can be a hard thing to explain, especially when you’ve looked at so many programs that they’ve all begun to blur. I think that’s why I so often see the same answer:…
The Medical School Application “Deadline”
In just a few days, many of you will want to submit your medical school application. You’ve probably heard that you need to submit on the first day possible – May 31, 2022 – if you want your best shot. But just how true is that? Medical school admissions myth vs. reality It is true…
7 To-Dos for Canadians Applying to U.S. Med Schools
Each year, Canadian medical school hopefuls look across the border for their medical education. While there are obvious challenges (adapting to a different health care system, returning to a Canadian residency, and much higher education costs), the higher acceptance rates at U.S. programs (about 36.2% overall per AAMC, as compared to around 19.6% in Canada)…
Reapplying to Medical School: Secondaries, Interviews and School Selection
In this final part of your assessment, we will look at all the other ways you communicated with the admissions committee. With the multi-staged admissions process, and an increasingly longer application season, applicants have multiple opportunities to make an impact – or be weeded out. Therefore, it’s important to evaluate whether or not your interactions…
Reapplying to Med School: Your Primary Application
The previous posts have focused on identifying problem areas in your application and offering ideas to help you address them. You might be feeling a bit fragile after such a critical review – if so, then you’re doing it right. This exercise demands that you be ruthless and identify every potential flaw. Your ego might…
How to Improve Your Experiences for Your Med School Reapplication
In this section of our Medical School Reapplicant Advice: 6 Tips for Success series, we’ll discuss how reapplicants can improve their service experiences. Another factor that can seriously hurt your chances is a lack of substantive, ongoing service experiences, both clinical and non-clinical. Medical schools want students who are passionate and committed – to the…
Improve Your MCAT Score for Medical School Acceptance
Fortunately, it’s easier to tackle a poor MCAT score than a poor GPA. While you should not retake the exam too many times, a better-prepared second or even third attempt can be a sound strategy. Many people find that studying independently or with a group of friends works well. Reviewing your old class notes and…
It’s a Match
Each year on Match Day, thousands of medical school students and graduates learn where they will receive their specialty training. This year’s Main Residency Match took place on Friday, March 18th. And with events at many medical schools – many of them in-person this year! – it was a cause for celebration for many participants…
Boost Your GPA for Medical School Acceptance
In our last post, we talked about how to assess your application weaknesses. If you’re feeling a bit fragile now, that’s to be expected – you’ve just undergone a pretty brutal review of your application! But the admissions committee is scrutinizing submissions with the same critical eye. Anticipating the problems so you can correct them…
Reapplying to Med School: Evaluating Your Medical School Profile
What should you do if you applied to med school and all you’ve received are rejections? You knew there was a possibility that this would happen, but that doesn’t erase the sting. What can you do now? How can you move forward? To start with, know you’re not alone. In the 2021 application cycle, only…
When Will Medical Schools Give You an Answer?
We are often asked: How long does a medical school have to invite an applicant to submit a secondary application? (Go there) When to expect interview invitations for medical school (or a response of ‘thanks, but no thanks’?) (Go there) The fact is that there’s no rule governing how much time a medical school has…
Tips for Applicants With a Low MCAT Score
Medical school applicants (or any other professional school applicant) must assess their credentials realistically to present themselves in the best possible way during the application process. Since applicants are evaluated based on specific quantitative criteria (primarily undergraduate GPA and MCAT scores) and non-quantitative criteria (research and clinical exposure, leadership skills, mentoring experiences), as well as…
AMCAS Traffic Rules: How to Use the “Choose Your Medical School” Tool
Everyone is probably aware that this is an “unprecedented time” for medical school applications. With applicant numbers at an all-time high, admissions staff working remotely, and interview dates stretching into the spring and possibly later, this application season has been like nothing we’ve seen before. But there is one constant in the application process –…
First Drafts of Personal Statements: Let Yourself Go
Writing the first draft of your personal statement is probably the hardest part of the whole application process. And it makes sense – it’s not easy to capture so much of your experience onto a single page. Transforming your first draft from just OK to simply spectacular I’ve read hundreds of first drafts over the…
Get a Head Start on Your Med School Secondaries
Right now, most premeds are counting down the days until May 28th, when the 2021 AMCAS application will open. After you put the final touches on your application and click “submit,” how do you plan to spend your time? Rewatching all nine seasons of The Office on Netflix Perfecting your indoor hoops game Finishing that…
Med School Applications Kick Off: Ten Tips to Get You Through the Season
Medical school hopefuls are getting ready to work on those applications. This can be a hectic time as you try to stay on top of everything. Here are ten tips to help you hit the ground running: Get cozy with the AMCAS/AACOMAS. These two services – the American Medical Colleges Application Service (AMCAS) and the…
M3 Journaling: How to Do it and How it Can Help Your Residency Application
What are you doing to prepare for the residency match? Chances are, you’re up to your eyeballs with rotations and exams and everything else that goes into finishing your medical degree. Chances are, you’re really not thinking much about your personal statement. Keep a journal…starting NOW Not to sound like a Bowflex commercial, but what…
Med School Admissions: Challenges and Solutions for Older Applicants
“You’re going back to medical school? Why would you do that? Are you crazy?” Hopefully most people won’t react so strongly to your decision, but the question is probably still on their minds. And similar reservations are bound to pop into the heads of medical school admissions committee members reviewing your application. While the experiences…
Can You Submit Your AMCAS Application BEFORE Taking the MCAT?
It’s risky to apply to med school before taking or retaking the MCAT for a few reasons: 1. Applying to med school is expensive and time intensive. It’s hard to know where you might be a competitive applicant if you don’t know how your scores compare to other students at a school. Your practice scores…
6 Tips to Improve Your AMCAS Application Activities Section
It’s almost summer, and for me that means barbecues on the deck, specifically with the company of friends. I was recently enjoying a cook-out at one friend’s home in particular, and gracious as my hosts were, I felt a bit daunted by the huge piece of steak that filled my plate, accompanied by a small…
